Robstown baseball eliminated by Needville in one-game playoff

Pickers streak of six consecutive area titles comes to an end

ROCKPORT - Perhaps down deep, Elias Vasquez knew that eventually, the youthfulness of his Robstown High School baseball team would show.

It did in a rather unattractive way Saturday in the Class 3A area round in a one-game playoff.

Needville junior Chad Ramsey put his unimposing win-loss record in the irrelevant folder, striking out 12 Cotton Pickers in helping lead the Blue Jays to a 6-2 victory and a spot in the Region IV-3A quarterfinals next week against Sweeny, which swept Zapata in the area round.

The defending regional champions, the Cotton Pickers' string of winning consecutive area titles ended at six after collecting only three hits off Ramsey (4-7) and committing five errors.

"Toward the end right here we're starting five, six sophomores. We're going to be tough next year when we get those other kids back," said Vasquez, whose Cotton Pickers end the year with a 16-11-1 record. "Like I said I lost our two top pitchers that I was expecting to be my No. 1 and No. 2, one to an arm injury and one for a disciplinary problem."

Pitchers Jon Leal (rotator cuff) and Brandon Garza (disciplinary problem) might have fared better calming Needville's bats, which awoke to collect eight hits. But the Cotton Pickers had little chance of solving Ramsey. The Cotton Pickers had just three hits and both their runs scored on errors.

"He has been consistent all year long," said coach Mike Weatherly, whose Blue Jays improved to 12-8. "Every time he steps out on the field it's what I expect from him. Like I said, his record's not that great because he's faced the best of the best we've had on our schedule."

Robstown senior left-hander Matt Lara (8-4) suffered the loss. The District 31-3A MVP allowed seven hits in 3.2 innings and threw four wild pitches, but Needville only had one extra-base hit.

Both coaches knew what they would be facing.

"You know, we prepared for that all week. We kind of figured that's who we'd see. We've got a big, tall left-handed kid that throws for us, too," Weatherly said, referring to second baseman Colin Schaaf. "So we gave them a look before hand and I think that helped us our a little bit."

Vasquez and his coaching staff got a good look at Ramsey in the Blue Jays' bi-district series against Rockport-Fulton, against whom he threw a two-hitter.

"We hadn't seen a guy up there with that speed. We had clocked him at 85, 85 consistently, he hit 87 a couple of times, and it looked like he was on today," Vasquez said. "He has a pretty good curveball and a change-up. So we knew it was going to be difficult, man."

Needville scored first on Chet Prihoda's double and two wild pitches in the bottom of the second and then broke open the game with four runs in the fourth on a Robstown error and run-scoring hits from Colin Pesl, Brandon Schulelke and Cody Labay, who had three of Needville's hits.

Robstown sophomore Mike DeLosSantos broke up Ramsey's no-hit bid with a one-out single in the fourth but the Cotton Pickers didn't score until junior Victor Leal singled, stole second and eventually scored on an error in the fifth, cutting Needville's lead to 5-1.

The Blue Jays added another run in the sixth off Robstown reliever Jose Plssencia when he issued a bases-loaded walk.

Robstown's final run scored after Ramsey hit catcher Efrain Gonzalez with a 3-1 pitch to lead off the seventh, and courtesy runner Alex eventually scored on an error.